CD1
Down Another Road
1. Down Another Road
2. Danish Blue
3. The Barley Mow
4. Aberdeen Angus
5. Lullaby for a Lonely Child
6. Molewrench
Songs For My Father
1. Song One (Seven-Four)
2. Song Two (Ballad)
3. Song Three (Nine-Eight Blues)
CD2
Songs For My Father
1. Song Four (Waltz in Four-Four)
2. Song Five (Rubato)
3. Song Six (Dirge)
4. Song Seven (Four-Four Figured)
Mosaics
5. Mosaics Part One: Theme 1
6. Mosaics Part Two: Themes 4, 2 and 3
7. Mosaics Part Three: Themes 4 and 6
8. Mosaics Part Four: Themes 2 and 8

His 70th birthday was widely
celebrated last year, but British bassist-composer
Graham Collier is in danger of neglect, although
albums like this may keep his name in people's
minds. This double CD contains three albums
recorded in 1969 and 1970. His best-known
recordings were made in the sixties and seventies,
after which he spent much time as an internationally-known
educator, particularly as artistic director
of the jazz course at London's Royal Academy
of Music in the eighties and nineties.

In fact the first of the
albums on this set has been in my collection
since it was released on LP. I suppose when
I bought it I was most impressed by some of
the musicians in the band he led then (in
1969), including saxist Stan Sulzmann, trumpeter
Harry Beckett, master drummer John Marshall,
and oboist/pianist Karl Jenkins (latterly
famous as the composer of such works as Adiemus).
Collier's music was also impressive, as he
was an open-minded composer searching for
new ways of jazz expression.

This is evident in Down
Another Road, an album which embraced
a wide range of different styles. The title-track
is brightened by a fine tenor solo from Stan
Sulzmann, although trombonist Nick Evans sounds
as if he was struggling. Danish Blue
includes a segment of free jazz which moves
into more orderly territory. Aberdeen Angus
is an example of jazz-rock: very funky, with
a dynamic drum solo by John Marshall. Note
how Marshall keeps his hihat playing four-in-a-bar,
to add to the band's impetus. By contrast,
Lullaby for a Lonely Child is a gently
wistful composition, with alyrical
solo from Sulzmann. Graham Collier is, naturally,
on double bass throughout but he never pushes
himself forward as a soloist.

Ever in search of the new,
Collier kept changing the personnel of his
groups, so that the second album here, Songs
For My Father, uses a basic sextet which
includes Harry Beckett and pianist John Taylor,
augmented by extra musicians for particular
tracks. The album experiments with various
moods and time signatures (e.g. 7/4 and 9/8).
Again, good melodies are mingled with shafts
of discord and even anarchy. Alan Wakeman's
soprano sax is outstanding in Song Two
(Ballad), wailing passionately. Song
Three hobbles along in 9/8 time - not
exactly a perfect tempo for a blues! Song
Four works rather better, despite its
contradictory description of "Waltz in four-four".
Song Five (Rubato) is mainly noisy
free improvisation. Song Six (Dirge)
opens with Harry Beckett sounding skittish
instead of dirge-like but he soon joins the
other musicians in an elegiac dirge, while
Song Seven is a straightforward tune
which still allows for discords.

The third album of the set,
Mosaics, takes experimentation a step
further by giving the players a number of
musical fragments which they can play whenever
they feel the urge. Unfortunately this format
encourages a lot of tentative doodling, with
too vague a structure for the musicians, who
often struggle to make musical sense. Harry
Beckett's contributions hang together better
than most.

So this double CD contains
some challenging music as well as some pleasurable
solos and interesting ensembles. In a way,
the three albums appear in descending order
of accessibility. Potential listeners must
be as open-minded as Collier to appreciate
everything his groups do, but the vital point
is that he was never content to stand still.